Clean air, cycling and the gift of the coronavirus
Coronavirus yoga
I don’t suppose there is a person on this planet that is not exhausted, frustrated and stressed about our world’s battle with the coronavirus. Eight months into this pandemic and counting, most of us are tired of quarantining, of giving up our favorite activities and social distancing from the people we love. It has become almost normal to feel depressed, anxious and hopeless as we are barraged with alarming news and statistics about the virus on a daily basis.
But what if—in between the news reports and videos of angry unmasked protesters, exhausted doctors on ICU units, and shuttered businesses—there is another story? What if underneath the suffering and pain, there is a silver lining—a ray of hope for a new, better world that will emerge when all of this is over?
Before the coronavirus arrived, our planet was on a virtually unstoppable trajectory. With carbon dioxide pouring out of cars and factories at an unrelenting rate, in many parts of the world, our skies became a red haze, the sun obscured by poisonous participles killing an estimated seven million people a year (WHO). Hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires spreading pollution across huge swaths of our country, and intolerable heat waves were becoming a way of life. Forests have been dying off. Glaciers have begun melting so fast that even an American icon, Glacier National Park, doesn’t have glaciers anymore.
And then a miracle happened. The coronavirus appeared and people stopped driving and flying at a chaotic rate around the world. Instead they traveled near to home and switched to carbon neutral transportation such as riding bikes and walking. Factories slowed production down and energy-gobbling office buildings stood empty. Our skies and rivers suddenly cleared as the relentless output of carbon dioxide slowed. And the earth began to heal.
Cycling the industrial Ruhr region of Germany
For the first time in generations, people in the Punjab in northern India saw the nearby snow capped Himalayan Mountains—obscured from sight for years due to air pollution. In urban areas around the world, residents gazed in awe at the Milky Way blazing across clear starry skies. And wildlife began returning to cleaner rivers and oceans.
Amazingly, the drop in carbon emissions has remained strong around the world, eight months after the arrival of Covid-19. Despite dire warnings that the change was only temporary, people have continued to curtail their frenzied work and social life, returning only slowly and partially to work and social activities. A study in Nature.com published on October 14, 2020 found that in large part, because of working from home restrictions, CO2 emissions from transportation have decreased by 40 % worldwide.
Today we have a choice. We can continue to look back, grieving for the world we have lost and hurrying desperately to get it back. Or we can look forward to a new, better world. A world where we work from home more and drive and fly less. A world where we spend more time in the outdoors, biking, hiking and walking with our children, instead of shuttling them in carpools from one activity to another. A slower, less frantic world where we do less and enjoy life more.
If we choose wisely, one day, everyone will be able to step outdoors and breathe the clean, fresh air of a beautiful new day. And I, for one, will be thankful that the coronavirus shook us out of our complacency and saved our planet for generations to come.
